Abstract
Twenty-first-century African Christianity continues its recent trajectory of explosive expansion and diverse—sometimes perplexing—expression. A revised edition of The Kingdom of God in Africa is therefore timely and constructive, and historians Mark Shaw and Wanjiru Gitau, both associated with the Centre for World Christianity at Africa International University, Kenya, are well placed to consider contemporary African Christianity in light of its long-standing history.
The authors introduce wrestling as “an apt metaphor for the story of African Christianity” (3), for they narrate and assess the church’s struggle to live out the gospel so as to create human flourishing across the continent. A vital contribution of this work lies in its methodology. Outlining the deficiencies of previous historiographical approaches, including missionary, nationalist, and ecumenical accounts, Shaw and Gitau advocate the discipline of World Christianity for its commitment to moving beyond Eurocentric approaches to focus on indigenous agency and expressions of faith. Its interdisciplinary nature—integrating history, theology, missiology, and social sciences—undergirds their approach to African Christianity, which strives to be “ecumenical in its breadth and inclusiveness, evangelical in its roots and core commitments, and contextual in its mission and sensitivities” (11). The authors highlight the crucial concept of the translatability of the gospel (Lamin Sanneh, Andrew Walls). They also adopt Augustine’s (City of God) and H. Richard Niebuhr’s utilization of the kingdom of God as an interpretive key for presenting church history. Shaw and Gitau therefore ask, “How has this core vision been translated by African churches and movements over time?” (16)
The book is structured in four parts, which trace three major themes concerning the kingdom of God. Parts 1 and 2 explore the first theme of the kingdom as the theocratic rule of God, reflected in the early centuries of Christianity in Egypt, North Africa, Ethiopia, and Nubia (“Beginnings to AD 600”), through the medieval centuries of engagement with Islam (600–1500), to the European discovery of Africa (1500–1700). Part 3 elaborates the second theme of the kingdom as the redemptive rule of Christ, examining the evangelical emphasis on conversion to Christ and its implications for evangelism, church-planting, antislavery initiatives, and global mission movements (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). Finally, Part 4 considers the third theme of the kingdom as the promotion of justice and peace (twentieth and twenty-first centuries). Core issues of justice in relation to sociopolitical and economic self-determination feature prominently in analyzing the complexities of mission and colonialism, the rise of African initiated churches (AICs), and the period since the 1960s, with its “paradoxical stories of exploding church growth in the midst of imploding African nation-states” (18).
Shaw and Gitau’s updated work is ambitious in scope, largely balanced in perspective, and commendably thorough for a single-volume account. While specialist historians may naturally seek greater depth in analysis, students and other interested readers in World Christianity will find this text to be a highly accessible and deeply compelling account of African Christianity.